A 20-something year old's journey through life

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Not all who wander are lost

Sorry for the delay on the posts! Things have been pretty eventful here lately! I have been doing lots and lots of cooking. I’ve also had a paper and presentation due, so that’s been taking up a little of my time. Now to the fun part–cooking.

Tuesday for our primi piatti we made gnocchi with an herb Parmesan cheese sauce. Our secondi piatti was a pork loin stuffed with herbs. Our dolci was homemade GELATO. Thats right, y’all. Gelato. We also made cookies as well. This was probably one of my favorite meals I have made so far. I don’t know if it was the gelato or the pork loin. It was just all delicious. I can say that gelato is probably one of the more challenging things that I have made. We actually had to start over because the cream had separated and it wasn’t in proper form.

Wednesday was my vegetarian cooking class, and the vegetable of the week was eggplant. We made a spaghetti dish with a tomato sauce and fried eggplant on top of it. You can also bake the eggplant. Our spaghetti was from scratch–which is super easy to make and SO much better. The second dish we made was eggplant parmesan. We also made baked eggplant wraps stuffed with breadcrumbs, herbs, and parmesan cheese.

Thursday I gave a presentation about the differences in restaurants in Italy. A Restorante has more of a variety and the full five courses. It is also one of the more expensive types of establishments in Italy. A Trattoria offers the same amount of courses but fewer options. This type of restaurant also uses family recipes that have been passed down through generations. An Osteria has fewer options and it doesn’t offer contorni(sides/vegetables). A Vinaino is basically a wine bar that offers cheese plates and paninis–maybe.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil tasting in class.

Last night(Thursday) I went to dinner and just wondered around the town by myself. Florence is really such a beautiful city. Everywhere I look there is something new that I haven’t seen. A man asked me if I was lost and I told him no because at the time I knew exactly where I was. It got me thinking about the saying “not all who wander are lost” and how it applies to my life. I feel like your 20s are a time for self-discovery. Since I’ve been here, I feel like I find out something new about myself every day. Whether it is how much I truly love cooking and the feeling of satisfaction I get when I make a great dish, or being able to navigate a city that I had never been to prior to a few weeks ago. As I ended my night of wandering, I grabbed a cup of hazelnut/biscotti gelato and listened to a man playing his guitar in front of Santa Croce basilica. Life is good, my friends.